Blog or Blawg – Why the Goofy Names?

While I have long understood that a ‘blog’ or ‘blawg’ is a collection of comments written by somebody on some topic posted on a website, I did not understand why the website was called a ‘blog’ or ‘blawg’ until I read Lesson 1 in Blogging in One Hour FOR LAWYERS by Ernie Svenson, who clearly explained the derivation of these goofy names on page 1 of his book:

” The blog developed to allow posts with new information to appear at the top of a page, pushing older content down. Since a journal is a form of log (as in a ship captain’s log), the new tool was called a web log, then shortened to weblog, and finally to blog.

Denise Howell (an early law blogger with a site called Bag and Baggage at www.BagandBaggage.com) further modified the term to blawg to connote a blog written by a lawyer, or one that covers a legal topic.”

This was welcome news to me and is perhaps newsworthy to other novices in the blawgosphere. Any lawyer thinking about a blawg should first read Mr. Svenson’s book.